Ukraine can succeed in counteroffensive even without F-16 — NYT

The New York Times writes about it.

The administration of US President Joe Biden waited more than a year before allowing NATO countries to send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. By the time pilots are trained to operate a modern aircraft, it will be too late to assist and protect ground forces undergoing this phase of combat.

"All of which has raised a question: Without significant air power — a pillar of the warfare tactics that the West has urged Ukraine to adopt — can the counteroffensive prevail? The answer appears to be yes, as current and former officials in Ukraine, the United States and Europe, as well as Western defense analysts, said in interviews last week," the message reads.

 "It will have to happen without the F-16,” said Philip M. Breedlove, a retired United States Air Force general and former NATO commander, “but I believe they can.”

He also added that there was "great benefit" for Ukrainian forces to learn and deploy so-called combined arms tactics, which are the basis of modern ground warfare, given that they "are going to be applicable in many different phases of what you do, no matter what."

"If you expect Ukraine to fight like we fight, then they have to have the tools that we have, and we have not given them those tools," Breedlove added.

• Ukrainian forces have been present on the left bank of the Dnipro river in the Kherson region for some time, but we cannot call it a bridgehead yet.